Children

Steve Stroud / Los Angeles Times

In the small villages, the horrible scourge of the decades-old HIV epidemic is still apparent -- and no more so than the number of orphaned children. We visited an orphanage in Mto wa Mbu. Education is important here, and it is hard to pry a coveted pen out of the hands of the young students, even while they are playing.

In the small villages, the horrible scourge of the decades-old HIV epidemic is still apparent -- and no more so than the number of orphaned children. We visited an orphanage in Mto wa Mbu. Education is important here, and it is hard to pry a coveted pen out of the hands of the young students, even while they are playing. (Steve Stroud / Los Angeles Times)

In the small villages, the horrible scourge of the decades-old HIV epidemic is still apparent -- and no more so than the number of orphaned children. We visited an orphanage in Mto wa Mbu. Education is important here, and it is hard to pry a coveted pen out of the hands of the young students, even while they are playing.